This is a story of stream ecological conditions in Maryland based on my 21 years of experience working on the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS). I have tried for a long time to figure out what streams were like before major human influences. The over 4,000 sites sampled by the MBSS have provided abundant data to investigate urban impacts, restoration, biotic homogenization, shifting baselines, fish passage, Biological Condition Gradients, IBIs, invasive species, and other factors that help describe how current stream ecological conditions may differ from historical conditions.